Book question Ok here’s something I’ve noticed when doing some book shopping. There are so many books on the shelves now but they all seem to be introduction to Wicca/paganism or the” true path of a witch” kind of thing. So when one is trying to progress or possibly read more where do you go. What do you read/recommend?

I’m looking for a tarot course run in Dublin. I’ve been doing tarot for a while now but I’d like a refresher course and to learn possibly some other techniques for doing spreads etc. Mostly googleing course has come up with some not great results and really it’s the kind of thing I’d like to come by from word of mouth more than anything.

Also would people be interested in having a tarot night as some point just to meet up and discuss cards, do some spreads etc?

A total lunar eclipse will take place on Thursday, February 21, 2008 (and Wednesday evening, February 20), the first of two lunar eclipses in 2008, and the only total eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse will not occur until December 21, 2010.

How do if they do at all do such events effect you and how you work ?What do lunar eclipses mean to you ?How do you work with them ?

Or does what ever the heavenly bodies are up to have any influence or effect on how you work ?

I found something today I wanted to share.Dublin was one of the many ports and trading town that the vikings came and settled in.So it would not be that unsual for there to be those in Ireland and in Dublin who have bloodties and connections to those Gods.Is there anyone here that incorperated that way of being, or ritual or dealing with those dieties ?

I have a connect there myself and have acted as valkyrie a time or two at blots.

"Gods of Asgard is a full-length graphic novel interpretation of the Norse myths, drawing on English translations of the original source material. It is a lifelong dream of artist/author Erik Evensen, who realized that although the mythology figures prominently in the world of comics, a true, straightforward adaptation has a never been published."

what do you think ? Have you come across comic/graphic novels pertaining to your gods or gods you interact with and what was the best and worsest ?

Please welcome theadydal to the group which appears to have been a little inert of late.

It appears to be a recent time of reflection and change with people. I've been a bit swamped by life lately and have found that worship is taking a bit of a back seat to other stuff.

Though I have to come up with some ornamentation for my sacred space, a set of three shelves we got for a corner on the stairs. I'm not sure if I should just put some meaingful items up and then come up with the designs over time or decorate first and then use it.

I'm thinking of putting Air on the top shelf, earth on the bottom and fire and water on the middle shelf. It could end up being decoupage or just celtic patterns on and colouring them in the sign colours.

I recently had the strangest vision/daydream. Last tuesday - oh yeah full moon and everything - I was just meditating before sleep, which is something I do pretty regularly, cause it makes me more relaxed and can enable me to sleep a bit better because I process some of the stress by imagining a stream where I put the rocks in and take the worn pebbles out when I return.

This time a woman with a flame in her hands came towards me. I thought she was going to give me a flame but instead she pushed through into my chest and put the flame in there and then the flame spread, but it wasn't a bad flame it was warming, not burning stuff away kind of flame more energy giving. It has me wondering about what it means ever since and has me wondering what's going on.

How do you feel about the subject of curses? Is it possible to curse someone? How often do you think it happens? What would make you believe that someone was working magic against you, and how would you handle the situation?

Mine was the sun on my face and the wind tugging my hair as I walked through the back garden at work with a Garda and everything was right with the world. Unfortunately I did want to dance with the wind but I don't think the Garda would have been amused 8)

Religion without Beliefs, part 2 I've finally finished the book, and I'm relieved to say that while the scholarship didn't much improve over the course of the book, there were one or two points Lamond raised that did get me thinking:1. He points out Christ's assertion that "No one can enter the kingdom of heaven except through Me," implying salvation through the self. Have decided to go look into the Greek and Aramaic translations of the Gospels in order to check this out, and it's actually provoked some thought.2. He dealt with the problem of ethnic deities; calling them in their native lands, whether ethnicity should play a role in ethnic deity worship (e.g. should Irish gods be worshipped only by those with Irish descent?).2b. He brought up the idea that specific thought-forms, and thereby specific gods, may be imbued with the characteristics of those who worship them. The example he used is Odin, claiming that a fair number of Odin-followers have felt their personal opinions turn more to the right after opening themselves to this god, due to the use of Odin and the Norse pantheon at large by the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s. I don't think he's right necessarily in this particular case (I've never felt myself drawn to conservatism) but it was thought-provoking. Are the gods what we believe them to be?3. He does point out some of Paganism's relations with other modern religions.

That said, Lamond still needs to work on whether he's being inclusive or not. On page 116, he states, rather definitively, "Just as there are no required Pagan beliefs...there are no forbidden ones." Thirty-two pages later, though, he makes an equally definitive statement: "Anyone who believes in the words of the [Anglican] General Confession of Sins is no Pagan." I know it may be difficult to reconcile certain aspects of paganism and Christianity, but I don't think he should rule out of hand some lucky person's ability to balance the two to their own liking.

Another problem I had with his adamant disavowal of Christian elements was his pressing requirement that certain pagan practices be purely initiatory, and guided by a Coven with High Priest and High Priestess. I don't see how, according to his explanation of the process, it's all that much different from a Catholic hierarchy of priest->laity, or the requirement of salvation through the Church. While some people may feel better guided by a Coven, others are perfectly content to allow karma (or what have you) to judge the ethics of their actions, without the intervention of a priestly class. I worry that the author doesn't treat Solitaries with sufficient seriousness.

Overall statement: It does have its thought-provoking moments, but I'm sure you could have these same thoughts provoked by a more well-written, balanced, scholarly text.

Religion without Beliefs by Frederic Lamond I have finished the first 40 pages of Religion without Beliefs: Essays in Pantheist Theology, Comparative Religion and Ethics, and I am sad to report that I'm already quite disappointed. I had accepted that, as a book of essays, the writing would convey a less scholarly tone than that to which I am generally accustomed, but even the first two "meat" sections of the book are...well, not good scholarship in the least.

Lamond is attempting to convince the reader of the need for Paganism in Western society. In doing so, he equates the economic collapse of the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Union with the post-WWII decline of monotheistic, proselytising religions (i.e. Christianity, Judaism, Islam) due to their individual 'totalitarianist' attitudes. India is raised as a spiritual ideal because of its pluralistic religious tolerance. Christian Protestantism is then claimed as the impetus behind male sexual repression, which leads not only to scientific and economic breakthroughs, but also to war. The return of female sexual freedom since the introduction of the birth control pill has led to a resurgence in 'female' issues such as music, art and the environment, has paved the way for a re-introduction of a female anthropomorphic representation of deity (or at least a personification as a 'she'), leading to a "rejection of the patriarchal monotheist paradigm." These are some of the arguments so far.

Many of Lamond's arguments seem to be based on gross misunderstandings of many modern mainstream religions. The rest of the arguments seem to be geared toward a rationalist rejection of the religious climate within which the author grew up; his invective seems to be directed toward Northern European Protestantism in particular. Rebellious spiritual teenager? Sounds like it to me.

It makes me sick to say that it smacks of the Paganism of a person who is not as yet wholly comfortable with his own chosen beliefs (or lack thereof). This is only made laughable by the author's assertion that "people at peace with themselves are rarely intolerant of those with different myths from their own" (p. 11). Under the guise of religious objectivism, Lamond himself is engaging in a more politically-correct flavour of intolerance through the propagation of utterly ignorant stereotypes of mainstream religions. It's the usual anti-mainstream prattle, dressed up as educated prose.

I'd call this Fluffy Paganism at its faux-intellectual worst. No stars unless it gets much better after page 50.